This is a joint giveaway with Code Name: Mama and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only. Please find the section marked “Win it!” for the mandatory main entry and optional bonus entries.

The Natural Newborn: A Great Mama Selling Great Products

I happen to be friends with the WAHM behind The Natural Newborn, and I am ecstatic that she’s doing a review and giveaway through Code Name: Mama and Natural Parents Network. Christina is mama to four beautiful kids ranging in age from two years to twenty years. Her family dabbles in all areas of natural parenting – from cloth diapering to owning their own chickens and growing their own food, and a little bit of everything in between.

Christina started making natural baby products when her daughter was little – about eight years ago. Her daughter had infant eczema, and Christina was able to clear the eczema up using homemade recipes for moisturizing soap and body butter. Her dedication to helping her daughter turned into a passion for helping other families on quests to reduce their exposure to chemicals, and The Natural Newborn was born.

We got the Bug Stopper specifically for this review. I was impressed by the light scent, as compared with other (commercial) natural bug sprays we have used. And I am confident that the Bug Stopper worked, because we conducted an experiment. One night, Kieran and papa went outside to play baseball, and we did not use any Bug Stopper. He came back inside with a good helping of mosquito bites.1 After the bites cleared up, we tried it again, this time applying Christina’s Bug Stopper Spray. Kieran returned with almost no bites! And what’s better, he didn’t complain about the spray, and he has sensitive skin.

I’ve been using Christina’s Soothing Body Butter for almost two years now. I bought the first jar of body butter because my feet get terribly cracked and sore in the winter months. I’ve used many different lotions – both over the counter and those only available from the pharmacy – to help heal my feet. Nothing has ever given me the results that I’ve seen with the Soothing Body Butter. I have loved the fact that a little goes a long way – one jar of body butter lasted me just about a year.

Why use natural baby products?

Several years ago, the Environmental Working Group conducted a survey “to find out what shampoos, lotions, bath soaps and other personal care products” children use. The results revealed “that children are exposed to an average of 61 different chemical ingredients every day, many of which have not been found safe for children by the government or the cosmetic industry’s expert safety panel. Due to gaping loopholes in federal law, cosmetics companies can put almost any ingredient they choose into their products, with no requirement to safety test. Companies can also claim that their products are gentle and natural even when they contain artificial chemical ingredients or harsh skin irritants.”2

Why is this such a concern? Exposure to chemicals can be even more damaging to children than it is to adults. Children’s skin is thinner than adults’ skin, so children “can absorb greater amounts of chemicals from the skin surface.”3 Additionally, because children’s “bodies are more rapidly growing and developing, . . . chemicals that can harm development can do maximum damage at this critical time.”4 For infants under six months, there is the added concern that “the blood-brain barrier that helps block chemicals from penetrating brain tissue [has not yet been] fully formed.”5

Let’s take a brief look at what can harm your child from their personal care products. “A complex mix of fragrances, preservatives and colors are used in many hygiene and beauty products. In fact, a number of ingredients commonly used in products for children, such as parabens and quaternium 15, can cause skin and eye irritation or allergic reactions, such as hives, watery eyes, and breathing difficulties. Some chemicals, such as phthalates, and contaminants, like formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, have been linked to more serious health problems, including endocrine disruption and cancer.”6

To use a specific example, let’s look at one baby wash product marketed for children with eczema that is labeled “gentle” and “natural.” This “gentle, natural” baby wash has ingredients that are linked to cancer, developmental and reproductive toxicity, allergies and immunotoxicity, endocrine disruption, skin, eye and/or lung irritation, biochemical or cellular level changes, neurotoxicity, and organ system toxicity.

Somehow, that doesn’t strike me as either “gentle” or “natural.”

What ingredients will you find in products from The Natural Newborn?

Christina is dedicated to making products that are safe for the most sensitive skin. Everything comes in unscented varieties, but you can also choose products that have soft, pleasing scents – normally provided by essential oils or other safe ingredients, but without all the harsh chemicals and preservatives that cause allergic reactions and eczema for so many people.

Here are the ingredients7 Christina uses for the two products she is giving away for this review:

If you have a question about any of the products Christina makes, contact her – she is a real person, and she will answer you!

BUY IT!

You can find Bug Stopper Spray, Soothing Body Butter and many more natural personal care products on The Natural Newborn website.

And just for Code Name: Mama and Natural Parents Network readers, The Natural Newborn is giving a 10% discount on all orders from now through November 30, 2011. Enter code NPN10 during the ordering process.

WIN IT!

For your own chance to win both the Bug Stopper Spray and Soothing Body Butter, enter in the comments below. Contest is open to mailing addresses in the United States only.

REQUIRED ENTRY:Visit The Natural Newborn and tell us about one of Christina’s products that you would like to try.

Leave a valid email address in at least one of your comments so we can contact you if you win. You can write them like this to foil spambots: mail {at} naturalparentsnetwork {dot} com.

This is a joint giveaway between Code Name: Mama and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only, and we’ll be recording IP addresses to ensure that there are no duplicate entries. That said, please do check out and enjoy both sites!

BONUS ENTRIES: Complete one or more of the following to increase your chance of winning after completing the mandatory entry above (leave a separate comment for each so we can count them all):

Tell us one reason you would like your family to use natural skincare products.

Post this giveaway on your Facebook page or wall and leave the link (1 entry). You can use this status update: Enter to win Soothing Body Butter and Bug Stopper Spray from @Code Name: Mama, @Natural Parents Network, & @The Natural Newborn. Contest ends 9/27 and is open to US shipping addresses. Be sure to attach the contest URL to your update! (http://codenamemama.com/2011/08/27/giveaway-natural-newborn/)

Enter another of the giveaways on Code Name: Mama (1 extra entry per giveaway — check back for more).

Put the Code Name: Mama badge on your website or add http://CodeNameMama.com to your text blogroll for 2 extra entries each. The HTML code for the badge is on the sidebar of this site. Leave your site URL in the comment.

Put the Natural Parents Network badge on your website or add http://NaturalParentsNetwork.com to your text blogroll for 2 extra entries each. The HTML code for the badge is on the right sidebar of NaturalParentsNetwork.com. Leave your site URL in the comment.

RULES

Contest open to UNITED STATES mailing addresses.

Contestants may enter at either Code Name: Mama or Natural Parents Network but not both. Entries will be combined for the drawing of a single winner.

Leave each entry as a separate comment so we can count them all.

For actions like following and subscribing, if you already follow or subscribe, just let us know in your comment.

For tasks that garner you multiple entries, you can copy and paste the comment with a #1, #2, etc.

You don’t have to do any of the bonus entries, but you do have to complete the first mandatory one.

We will pick the winner through Random.org after the contest closes and send an email notification. Leave a valid email address as you comment so we can contact you if you win. If we can’t reach a winner or don’t hear back within a couple days, we’ll draw a new name. Entries will be added together from both sites. If there are 50 entries from the non-NPN site and 65 entries from NPN, we will count the non-NPN entries as numbers 1-50 and the NPN entries as numbers 51-115.

After giveaway closes, a representative from NPN will contact the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to respond by email; otherwise, NPN will select another winner.

Disclosure: Our reviewer received a sample of Bug Stopper Spray for this review.
We try to seek out only products we think you would find
relevant and useful to your life as a natural parent.
If we don’t like a product, we won’t be recommending it to you.
See our full disclosure policy here.

I would love to try the Bug Stopper spray. Both myself and my daughter get eat up with bug bites very easily. I don’t like using the sprays because of the chemical issue so we have been going with bands (probably still not that safe though :( ). I would love to give this a try instead. Thanks for sharing about things that work for you and your family. I always love personal reviews!

I would like for my family to use natural skin products because they are better for you. I have had too many of us in my household break out in rashes from use of chemicals in things like makeup/lotion/deoderant etc.